Bioinspired calcareous bioceramics with tailored organic/inorganic composition via cold sintering of amorphous precursors

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Stephan E. Wolf
• Subject Area: Solid State and Surface Chemistry, Material Synthesis ; Biological and Biomimetic Chemistry ; Biomaterials
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 554953245

A major incentive for mimicking mineralized bone tissues is the need for bone-regenerating biomaterials with a bioresponse and -resorbability matched to a clinical use case. Calcareous biominerals such as nacre feature exceptional biological performance when used as a bone-replacement or bone-curing bioceramic — in fact; they appear in pre-Columbian archeological records as the first successful bone-integrating materials employed by humans. Nacre or coral skeletons are osteoconductive, osteoinductive, and osseointegrative; they even outperform standard bioceramic materials such as HAP or TCP. Despite their promising biomaterial properties, their clinical exploitation is unrealistic because of potential xenograft-related long-term complications, low growth rate, and sustainable harvest on a global scale. In this project, a novel synthesis approach for biomimetic ceramics shall be developed, which will use cold sintering to reproduce the nanogranular — i.e., hybrid nanoceramic — ultrastructure in vitro. In this project, we capitalize on various strategies revealed by our and others' studies on biomineralization organisms. By merging biomimetic strategies with a state-of-the art low-temperature processing strategy for ceramics, a hybrid material state of the bioceramic shall be achieved and therapeutic ion doping at high incorporation rates. The newly generated biomimetic bioceramics will be assessed concerning their biological performance and faithful reproduction of the characteristic nanoscale organization of calcareous biominerals.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants